You know what’s SO great? Things that are supposed to be cold that are actually cold. We have refrigeration again! After the speediest battery removal and install on Wednesday, yesterday was for refer upgrading. (The timing meant that we postponed our launch until this morning, boohoo, but with winds picking up for the next few days, another day on the stands was fine. (Unless you ask Lily.))
Naturally, the evaporator plate that they sent was not the one we ordered, because that would be too boring. It meant a call to the company to confirm that we could retrofit the one we had into participating as the one we want, and then Andy worked his skills. (We ordered a vertical unit, and they sent a horizontal one- complete with a door, and regular ice cube trays. What a novelty that would have been. Good thing we’re happy with our vertical ice.)
It did mean another day in the yard for the girls to occupy themselves while we work, which we’re pushing the limits on, we realize. School was interesting in that the entire interior was torn up for refrigeration purposes, and they did what they could, where they could. Violet did her work in the two and a half remaining square feet of the cockpit, crunched up like a Jack-in-the-box, and you can see below that Lily made the head her classroom. Finishing up these bigger projects will be a relief to all of us. After school, they use up their hour of ipad game time pretty quickly, so they’ve been roaming around, facetiming with friends when they’re out of school, and playing with their newest friend next door.
——— Writing break for launching! ——-
The camaraderie felt in this boatyard in any given moment is intense and sweet to say the least, with neighbors cheering on neighbors as we all progress in our projects. Since some things seem so never-ending, it’s an important boost to have, not to mention that we’re getting to know others through the lenses of their own fixes. A borrowed tool means a fetching visit and then a returning visit, and the subsequent conversations that come- first the approach for the fix, and always some context for attendance on Green Turtle in the first place. Two weeks here and I feel like I have a family in the boaters and workers here at Abaco Yacht Service, and the pop-in congratulatory visits during and after our launch cemented that. The four of us were beaming with pride and excitement as she splashed, but so were so many others! Lots of farewells, oohs and aahs over Andy’s fine work, and kind sendoffs. (We’re just going around the corner to White Sound tonight, mind you, but we won’t see these fine folk on our walks to the bathroom, the laundry, etc. etc.)
Between the new batteries, the new bank manager monitoring system, our new solar panel, and the interest in what our air-cooled refrigeration unit draws, there has already been some serious nerding out over amperage flow. It’s so nice to be able to properly measure what our individual ‘necessities’ draw.
It’s time to head over to fetch the girls from their last Green Turtle Cay playdate for a while, and to say goodbye to a family who has been so wonderful and dear to us. They have folded us in to their rhythm, feeding and entertaining us, for which we are so immensely grateful. More wonderful people on our journey; our Chickadee tribe gratefully swells in numbers even more.
